President Donald Trump said Democrats who did not clap during his first State of the Union address were “treasonous.”
Speaking at a Sheffer factory in Cincinnati Monday, Trump criticized Democratic lawmakers who did not stand and applaud during his State of the Union address last Tuesday, saying they gave off “bad energy” and calling them “un-American.”
“Somebody said treasonous,” he said. “I mean, yeah, I guess, why not. Can we call that treason? Why not?”
A White House spokesman said Tuesday that the remarks were “tongue-in-cheek.”
Trump called for bipartisan unity during his first State of the Union address, but many Democrats in the audience stayed seated and avoided clapping even on some noncontroversial subjects that would have typically prompted applause. Some said they found the calls disingenuous.
“You cannot reject bipartisan plans to improve health care and protect Dreamers or sow hate and division — and then turn around the next day and say you want to work together,” said Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California after the speech.
Read his full remarks on the State of the Union below:
“Did anybody happen to see the State of the Union address? So I got good marks. I said you have the lowest black unemployment in the history of our country. It was like … It was a game, you know it’s a game. They play games. They were told don’t even make a facial movement. And I’m talking about, you have the lowest Hispanic unemployment in the history of our country. This isn’t me, this is the charts, the polls. We have the lowest in the history of our country. Dead silence. Not a smile. In fact there was one guy when I said the lowest African-American unemployment, he was sort of clapping, like … Who was that guy? He was a nice guy. I think he was a reverend. I wouldn’t say it was exactly a rousing. but he was putting his hands together. I want to find out who he is. I’m going to send him a letter of thank you and he was probably severely reprimanded — don’t you think Rob, I think so — because he was the only one. So that means they would rather see Trump do badly, OK, then our country do well? That’s what it means. It’s very selfish. It got to a point where I really didn’t even want to look too much during the speech over to that side, because honestly it was bad energy. You know, it was bad energy. You’re up there, you’ve got half the room going totally crazy wild, they loved everything, they want to do something great for our country, and you have the other side even on positive news, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah, I guess, why not. Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean they certainly din’t seem to love our country very much.”
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